A Moratorium on New Hotel Development in Bali.

Beritabali.com quotes Bali's Chief of the Provincial Tourism Authority, Gede Nurjaya, as recommending that the City of Denpasar and all regencies in Bali undertake a moratorium on the issuance of new building permits for hotels, saying Bali has sufficient hotel rooms.

Nurjaya's comments were made to beritabali.com on Friday, August 8, 2008, who said the request for such a moratorium was made by Bali's Governor five years ago, but was ignored by regency governments.

According to Nurjaya, the desire for new hotel investments in Bali remains high with an estimated 45,000 hotel rooms currently operating on the Island. "Perhaps there are even more (hotel rooms)," admitted Nurjaya, "if we add in villa developments, the number of rooms may hit 50,0000."

Nurjaya said that Bali's needs more investment in the agricultural sector, as agriculture and Bali's subak water distribution system is an icon of Bali tourism.